Friday, May 29, 2015

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

So, in an effort to create a pipeline for getting animation frames into game...
I decided to add bit-packing to the mix.
Advantages:
1. Smaller embedded file size for lots of assets.
2. Makes my scanned sketches look decent with minimal work.
3. May somewhat protect my game from being decompiled and having new assets swapped in.
Won't make it impossible, but a lot harder.
And people who do that kind of thing are looking for a shortcut.
So make it hard enough for them and they won't do it.
Because if they wanted to work that hard, they would just make their own game.

Monday, May 18, 2015

UPDATE: This article was more helpful for my needs:
http://www.onextrapixel.com/2014/03/21/designing-for-changing-technology-font-icons-vs-svg/
I read this article:
https://css-tricks.com/icon-fonts-vs-svg/
Really good stuff..
But didn't cover the one thing I wanted to know..
FILE SIZE.
Embedding vector graphics into a custom font I suspect may be better on file size.
I say this because SVG format is basically a text file with with drawing commands in it.
Sure, you could embed the SVG as a text file and use string compression on the SVG data.
That could work.
But, if TTF fonts natively store the vector info in a more native/binary format,
I think the product pipeline would be best off by using a TTF "vector artwork pack".
Than an SVG "vector artwork pack".
Going to search a bit more on the internet. Then probably download a wingDings font
and check it's file size before I make a final decision.
But right now I am heavily leaning towards TTF because many of the complaints
against using TTF icons are specific to web development. When using my custom architecture,
these things are irrelevant.
-John Mark